CrossTeam Properties Offers Advice on Home and Garden Improvements

The first thing you need when building your own cupboards is to choose the type of hinge that suites your purpose.

Butt hinges are the most common of all hinges and will be found throughout the house. They need to have a shallow recess cut into the door surface for the hinge to bed in when closed. To cut the recess, follow the edge of the hinge with the chisel and then gouge out the core as deep as the hinge. Screw the hinges in place and mark their position on the frame, again gouging out the recess. Attach the screws and check the door opens and closes properly.
 
Flush hinges have a cut section meaning the hinges fit together in a single width and can be fixed to the door and cupboard directly, without the need for any chiselling.
 
Piano hinges are long steel or copper hinge strips cut to the appropriate length. These are delicate hinges normally used on lighter doors such as boxes and cabinets.

Cranked hinges are specialist hinges that can be opened fully to 180º folding completely back on themselves.

Hidden hinges are normally used in flat pack units and have a screw for altering the vertical and horizontal levels of the hinge.

Once the door is hung you will need to attach the catch or bolt and the door handle. Catches can be either magnetic, which are good for light cupboard doors, or ball catches that have a little more grip to hold the door closed.

The position for the handles should be marked and drilled and are normally screwed in from behind.

Bathrooms are usually the smallest rooms in the house but the clever use of accessories can really uplift the whole design of the room.

Purchase some decorative glass bottles, or consider the safety aspect and use plastic ones if you have children around, and pour all your various shampoos, shower and bath lotions into them. Everything will then look neat, tidy and uniform.  Glass is best because of the way it shines in the bathroom but there are some very attractive looking acrylics also available.

A set of matching towels will look stylish hung up in your bathroom, but you can also use them to help dress the room. Fold one and hang it over the towel rail, or keep a stack of towels on bathroom shelves, but make sure you fold and roll them as they do in beauty salons for maximum effect.

A mirror does need to be functional and practical to be placed in a bathroom, but look for something with an unusual frame or shape that can be used for display. Place a large mirror in a strategic position and see how it changes the light reflections and even the perceived proportions of the room.

Bathroom cabinets need to be practical but they do not have to be boring. A well designed, stylish cabinet can add that special something to the room but make sure that it will fit where you want it to go before purchase.

Coloured or plain white candles can give a restful and inexpensive finishing touch to any bathroom. Choose colours that pull everything else together in the room. Contemporary bathroom designs are easy to achieve with the right accessories. 

Most of us are not fortunate enough to have a spacious bathroom with a large amount of storage space. This is obviously a problem, but with some inventive thinking this drawback can easily be turned into an advantage, stylistically at least.

First of all, thoroughly appraise your bathroom. Forget conventional notions of bathroom cabinets situated over the lavatory and so forth. These might look good on paper, but in practical terms are next to useless. They can also give the bathroom a peculiarly disproportionate look.

Shower curtains are a good place to start. Choose a style that features pockets sewn on to the bath or shower facing side. These are ideal to hide away razor blades, shampoo and soaps. If you are concerned that the curtain has a lumpy look, invest in a double curtain rail. Simply hide the ‘storage’ shower curtain behind another, perhaps more expensive one.

Hanging baskets are another good space saving device. There are plenty of clip on baskets on the market that can be readily hung from a towel rail. They are perfect for storing anything from a hairdryer to your washing gear.

Wine racks are another item that can be pressed into service in the bathroom. Rolled towels fit neatly into the bottle holders and make for a highly original decorative feature. Try painting the rack a complementary colour to your shower curtains and bathmats.

Finally, if you have children, where better to store their toys than a foldaway laundry bag? Leave the wet toys to dry, remove and tuck the bag away.

Space is always a problem in a family home and nowhere more than in the bathroom. In particular, mornings can be a nightmare. Yet with a little careful planning there are simple ways to maximise the space in the bathroom and avoid full-scale family arguments.

Try dividing the room into clearly defined sectors. Separating the shower enclosure and bath into its own space and doubling the sink capacity is a useful aid to increase the number of people able to use the bathroom at any given time. Another idea is to create one long vanity unit, again with a double sink and installing a continuous mirror along the wall is another. Walling off the toilet is a good aid to privacy.

If you have small children, safety should be the watchword. Be sure to include a small step to enable them to get in and out of the bath safely. Non-slip bath mats should be included both inside and outside of the bath.

Be sure to fix safety catches on the toilet seat. If the children are slightly older and trusted to shower on their own, adjustable showerheads should be fitted as standard.

Perhaps the most important safety point is to place the medicine cabinet at as high a point as possible and always fit a childproof lock.

If these criteria are borne in mind, then sharing a bathroom may not be quite such a nightmare after all. More importantly, everyone will be safe.

Choosing the right basin taps is a large part of what will define the style of your bathroom. As well as other bathroom furniture and accessories, such as towel rails, clothes hooks and toilet roll holders, stylish basin and bath taps will provide the finishing touch.

For modern bathrooms, there is a wide variety of choice when it comes to basin taps. Easily the most popular and practical option is a single-bloc mixer (where one tap is used for both hot and cold water), but it is important to make sure that you can fit this type of tap on to your bathroom sink. If the original taps were individual hot and cold units you will have to replace the basin with one with a single hole for the tap.  Fortunately, for anyone who has a small basin and is stuck for space, there are plenty of mono-bloc taps available that will still leave room for other items such as soap and toothbrush holders.

Another important factor when deciding on the right basin taps for your bathroom suite is that they will match the bath taps that are installed. With so many manufacturers providing similar styles it may seem easy to find taps that will suit, but there will always be slight differences between designs.

Chrome is easily the most common finish for bath taps, but if you are just starting to build on your bathroom suite design, there will be plenty of brass-finish taps that should not be overlooked, which will also give your bathroom a more unique style.

The right furniture can add a great deal of style and convenience to your bathroom.  From vanities to fitted units, it is easy to find bathroom furniture that will accommodate your needs.  It will be important to investigate a variety of types of bathroom furniture to ensure that you are selecting the most appropriate pieces.  This is especially important because a lot of bathroom furniture is quite expensive.

Fitted furniture units are a great way to turn your traditional bathroom into a contemporary one.  Most units have a variety of cabinets and include a basin and a toilet with a concealed cistern.  You can find these units in a variety of sizes and a number of them also have several overhead cabinets which are great for storage.  It is also quite common to find tall cabinets included in the unit which are useful for storing items such as towels. 

While plenty of basins can be hung directly from the wall, choosing one that is installed in a beautiful vanity is also a great option.  This provides additional storage and can add some warmth to a bathroom as well.

One thing to keep in mind when selecting bathroom furniture is quality.  As you will likely be spending a bit of money to find the appropriate furniture, you want to make sure that you purchase high quality pieces.  Bathroom furniture is exposed to humidity and temperature fluctuations so you want to make sure that it will last for years to come.

The fixtures you use for your bathroom design can determine how small or big the room will look. Sophisticated designs tend to take up a lot of space, so you should go for something simpler, preferably in a light colour.

The more light there is in the bathroom, the roomier it will appear. With that in mind, installing extra lighting can make a small bathroom look a whole lot larger. Adding light fixtures or making use of higher wattage bulbs can achieve this quite simply and cheaply. Adding natural light will achieve a similar result and this can be done by putting in a new window or skylight. This will, of course, involve some reconstruction work, but depending on the location of the room, it may not be too expensive.

The installation of bathroom mirrors will also add to the apparent size of the room, as they reflect artificial and natural light. Having several mirrors in a small bathroom can also add depth, since their reflective qualities make the walls look as though they are further away than they really are.

Another obvious way in which you can make extra space in your small bathroom is by cutting down on the number of items that are in there. Bathroom furniture, like storage shelves, can take a lot of space and should be removed, if possible. A good alternative home for the items that the shelves contained might be a small storage cabinet located in the hallway outside the bathroom. There are also items that can be relocated to the bedroom.

Having a bathroom cabinet fitted is great way of improving how a bathroom looks and also enhances the functionality of the room. You can either opt for a bathroom cabinet that is ready-made, that you might fit yourself, or one that is custom-made by a joiner.

One of the main reasons why you would need a bathroom cabinet is to make better use of the space available, especially if it is a particularly small bathroom. By installing such a cabinet, the smaller essential items, such as personal toiletries, which usually take up a lot of space (usually the end of the bath or the windowsill), can find a proper home. If you are a person that likes rooms to be clutter free all the smaller items in the room can be stored in the cabinet, even the soap dish.

In a small room, the bathroom cabinet can be placed above a toilet, making the maximum use of space. It also makes sense to ensure that the cabinet comes equipped with its own towel rack at the bottom. Alternatively, a freestanding bathroom cabinet or cupboard can be placed behind the entry door if there is sufficient space.

While there is a wide range of ready-made bathroom cabinets available on the market, a custom-made one is more likely to make the most efficient use of space. Your cabinet can then be as simple or sophisticated a piece of furniture as you wish. It will help you to organise the bathroom clutter, which is after all, their basic function. If you decide to go for a custom-made bathroom cabinet, the person to talk is a local joiner who will work to your design and the exact measurements that you provide.

One of the recent trends in bathroom design is making it as enticing and people friendly as possible. This actually makes perfect sense as people often spend hours in the bathroom during the course of the day. There is certainly no reason then not to make it as comfortable as the other rooms in the house!

A typical family bathroom is used by most, if not all, the members of the family, so the clutter can build up quite quickly as you can imagine. All of the children’s toys, the medicines, the personal effects…they all need enough storage space so that they don’t get in the way or pose a hazard to the bathroom’s users. You can keep medicines in a bathroom cabinet that you can then lock so that they are safe from children. The other toiletries can then be stored in a separate bathroom cabinet.

One important concern in any bathroom is adequate ventilation. If you have enough space to install windows, you would have enough ventilation for most needs. If space or privacy issues prevent the installation of a bathroom window, you may have to go with an extractor fan.

If you have old or disabled people at home, it is a must to make the bathroom as safe and as comfortable for them as possible. You can do this by installing grab rails and slip proof mats or flooring. Also make sure that they are able to access the bathroom features such as the toilet, bath, sink, towel rails, and mirrors easily and safely.

For a bathroom that has the most amazing furniture and accessories you should look at the incredible range offered by Roper Rhodes. This company is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of furniture and accessories for all kinds of bathrooms, going all the way from economical standard to expensive designer.

In fact the quality of the items on offer means that you can use accessories and furniture to transform your bathroom from the mundane, into one that looks almost as good as one supplied by a top Italian design studio. Yet to achieve this look it is not necessary to spend a huge amount purchasing the large items, like the bath and shower, because these can be standard products. The designer look comes from the more expensive shower shelves, robe hooks and soap dishes. It’s almost the cheat’s way to get a designer bathroom.

If you do have a very expensive bathroom, then you don’t want to install cheap and nasty fittings and accessories that will simply spoil the look of the whole ensemble. Instead, you should be looking for the kind of quality and design statements made by the pieces offered by Roper Rhodes.

Whatever you are thinking of buying, whether it is simply the odd accessory or major items of bathroom furniture, Roper Rhodes will leave you satisfied and delighted with your purchases. This is cutting edge design in terms of quality and style, but the pieces are all durable and with a timeless elegance, so your bathroom will look as good in years to come, as it does when you first installed it.